The UFC’s Dan Hardy: Sights on Redemption and Animal Welfare Award …

March 16, 2012

Dan ‘The Outlaw’ Hardy won his first four fights with the UFC — a tough thing to do for anyone in the organization, due to the extremely high level of fighter and competitive parity from top to bottom of every weightclass — which quickly garnered him a title-fight with welterweight champ, Georges St. Pierre. After taking the champ the distance, and losing the decision, Hardy was surely disappointed, but joined the piile of contenders to fall to the growing legacy of St. Pierre. Aside from who most in the sport that acknowledge Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world — and best fighter in the sport’s history of existence* — Pierre takes the second, according to most. Yet, ‘The Outlaw’ also lost his next three fights, sparking many to claim Hardy deserved a pink slip from the organization, who rarely lets a fighter continue after three, and four fight losing streaks — aside from legend, hall of famers, and former champs (who have still been cut in similar situations, a/o ‘resigning’ wuthout mention of getting let go, fir the sake of pride, respect, etc.). But, ‘The Outlaw’s’ chipper attitude (to me, the British, Irish, Scottish, and Aussie panopoly of accents always seem chipper/postive), fan friendly fighting style (exciting, brawl type style, etc.), and size and effusive fan base of support put his employment status on the good side of the razor’s edge, at least for the time being. Hardy hopes setting up shop permanently in Las Vegas will provide a stable and bettet context, of living and training, to tap into an evolved fighter, and showcase his skills in redeeming his legacy in the sport.

Also, Hardy was recently awarded the East Lake Pet Orphanage, in Dallas, Texas, ‘Kramer Award’, given annually to an individual that exhibits outstanding recognition of animal welfare activism. Which probably breaks, at least to a degree, the stereotype for a sizable amount of people’s misconceptions regarding the MMA world, and the UFC.

*This is dependent upon scant, if not any amount of knowledge of what I like to refer to as the ‘Unknown Warrior’ context, paradigm: to be further explained and described at a later date…(ah, the intrigue, the mystery…)